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The Seattle Times)
The daily Seattle Times is the leading newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It began as the Seattle Press-Times, a four-page newspaper founded in 1891 with a daily circulation of 3,500, which Maine teacher and attorney Alden J. Blethen bought in 1896. Renamed the Seattle Daily Times, it doubled its circulation within half a year, and by 1915, circulation stood at 70,000. As of 2003, daily circulation stands at 231,621. It is one of a few remaining major city dailies in the United States to be independently operated and owned by a local family (the Blethens).
Since 1983, the Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are run under a Joint Operating Agreement whereby advertising, production, marketing, and circulation are run by the Times for both papers. They maintain separate news and editorial departments. The papers put out a combined Sunday edition, whose circulation is 473,882, to which the P-I contributes only a few pages of editorial content. The Times attempted to get out of the JOA in 2003, resulting in a legal battle which the Times lost.
The Times was an afternoon paper until 1999, when it switched to morning delivery (like the P-I). The main reason stated was that delivery vehicles would be able to get around better in the early morning hours; critics suspected the actual rationale was to compete more directly with the P-I.
Editorially, the Times is probably more conservative than the liberal-leaning P-I, endorsing a mix of Republican and Democratic candidates and often leaning towards centrists and incumbents. In 2000, the paper endorsed liberal Democrat Bill Bradley for president early in the primary process, but ultimately went with George W. Bush when Bradley failed to win his party's nomination, amid speculation that publisher Frank Blethen had overruled the editorial board due to his opposition to the estate tax. In 2004, the paper endorsed John Kerry; Blethen has been critical of Bush administration policy on media consolidation.
Publishing history of predecessor papers
In 1886, Seattle Daily Call, extant 1885, merged with Seattle Daily Chronicle, extant 1881, to form Seattle Daily Press. Name changed to Seattle Press 1891.
Seattle Daily Times founded 1883; name changed to Seattle Times 1889.
Seattle Press and Seattle Times merged 1891 to form the Seattle Press-Times.
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